


The Speed of Wishes

by rowofstars



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Pete's World
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-03
Updated: 2009-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-25 12:02:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4959886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowofstars/pseuds/rowofstars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is said that if you see a falling star, you should make a wish.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Speed of Wishes

**Author's Note:**

> After a few week haitus the challenges are back and I'm so happy! This was written for challenge #15 at [](http://then-theres-us.livejournal.com/profile)[then_theres_us](http://then-theres-us.livejournal.com/) , which was a collection of wonderful photos. The picture I choose is below. Unbeta'd so any mistakes are mine, if you see one, please let me know.

 

 

It is said that if you see a falling star, you should make a wish. Though they are just rocks and dust burning up in the atmosphere, these tiny bits of debris have been imbued with magical powers, to grant that which the heart desires most.

\----

When Rose Tyler is six years old, her mother sits down with her on the sofa, a worn and dusty photo album spread over their legs. The pages stick together here and there, and the pictures are yellowed, curling at the edges. She listens silently while her mum tells a story of a man who she’d never know, yet whom she loves all the same. Jackie says he is in a happy place, up there in the sky.

So when Rose sees a brief streak of light against the night sky, framed by her small bedroom window, she does what her grandmother told her. She scrunches her eyes shut, clasps her little fingers tight and makes a wish. She will tell no one, lest her dream not come true, to know the man with the kind eyes and crooked grin who’s bowling trophies and crazy schemes are packed away in a box in the back of her mum’s closet.

It’s more than a decade later, long after she’s let go of such childhood notions, and not quite how she imagined it, but she gets her wish, brought to her by a mysterious man and his blue box of wonders.

\----

When Rose Tyler is twenty-one, she stands on a beach in her mother’s arms, the salt of her tears mingling with the spray off the ocean. She makes them sit in the Jeep, five and a half hours because it’s what he made her promise to always do. He is the one who can make all her dreams a reality, her own shooting star.

Then she waits one more hour, just to be sure.

Through the glass of a small hotel room, she stares up at the night sky, waiting. When the right moment comes, her eyes are closed, her fingers linked together just like the first time. With him she discovered that she can still embrace the fantastic ideas of her youth. It is impossible that she doesn’t believe in anymore. A single tear escapes from the corner of her eye, trailing down her cheek and falling, like the star she hangs her hopes on.

Years later, when she’s almost given up a second time, it happens in that not quite expected way, and her wish is briefly granted.

\----

When Rose Tyler is twenty-five, she finds herself lying in the cool grass of her parent’s garden on a clear summer evening. The stars here are something she never paid much attention to after that first night, but now she is waiting again. It’s all a matter of timing and patience. When the familiar sparkle finally gives way, trailing bits of glitter across the sky, she sucks in a breath and lets her eyes fall with it. Her wish floats up into the air, a whisper from her heart.

She hears the rustle of the grass next to her as the new new _new_ Doctor folds his long form to sit down. Neither speaks, and after a time he stretches out alongside her.

He doesn’t look at her, just keeps his gaze fixed on the graceful curve of Ursa Major. “Did you make a wish?”

“Yeah.”

“What did you wish for?”

There is a short laugh, and a slight quirk of her lips, but she doesn’t move, doesn’t look in his direction. Her voice breaks just the tiniest bit as she speaks. “If I told you, it – it wouldn’t come true.”

He smiles and reaches across the empty space for her hand. Their fingers slip together, fitting in that perfect way, and she feels her head spin. The ground pulls at her body, the whole world tilts and she’s hurtled through space at sixty seven thousand miles an hour.

Their eyes meet in the space between heartbeats, their lips sloppy and impatient. His nose presses against her cheek, her arm is pinned between them, grasping at his shirt. Her skin feels as cool as his used to and when her lips part, he rolls onto his back, taking her with him. They make love there, in the grass, clinging to the skin of the Earth as the universe rushes by.

\----

It is said that if you see a falling star, you should make a wish, and if you don’t tell a soul, your wish will come true. What it doesn’t say on the tin is what Rose Tyler has come to understand. All wishes will be granted, some when you least expect it, some in ways you never imagined, but all in their own time.

 


End file.
